Kurdistan’s Weekly Brief March 29

Turkey (Bakur or North Kurdistan)

HDP (People’s Democratic Party) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and a delegation of deputies accompanying him have paid a visit to Şırnak’s Cizre district on March 25. Demirtaş and the delegation were surrounded and attacked by police forces without any warning upon their leave from the basements on their way to the HDP district office.

While the “curfew” and attacks have been going on for the last 13 days in line with the martial law practices in Hakkari’s Gever (Yüksekova) district, the road between Şemdinli and Gever has been closed for transit by the order of the governorate. By the blocking of the road that is the only connection to the outside world for the Şemdinli district with a population of 70.000, local people are put under a “de facto curfew”.

Police forces have conducted a house-raid operation against 7 members of the Organisation Committee of the Newroz event in the main Kurdish city Amed. Organisation Committee President an DBP Amed branch co-chair Hafize İpek, DTK Executive Board Member Seydi Fırat, Hüsnü Pervane, Avukat Mahmut Çifçi, Abdulgani Alakan, Ramazan Kaval and Ayşe Çelikbilek were detained in their houses and taken to provincial police headquarters.

Two outpatient clinics in Cizre were shut down and allocated to the gendarmerie and the police. State forces, using every facility in the hospital including the cafeteria, have banned even the hospital personnel from going up to the third floor.

Mothers of 13 people killed in Sur had to bury their beloved ones in the gardens of two houses due to the ongoing siege and attacks on the district. The office of the chief public prosecutor decided to evacuate these bodies from the current site.

Syria (Rojava or West Kurdistan)

The armed groups of what so called “National Coalition”continue their attacks on Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood with heavy weapons, which have risen the number wounded among civilians to eight, including three children.

Rojava Coordination of Cantons of Cezîre, Kobanî and Efrîn condemned ISIS’s attack in Brussels capital of Belgium. The coordination released a written statement regarding the attack and offered Rojava people’s condolences to people of Belgium.

Ilham Amhad, the co-leader of the Movement for a Democratic Society said that the ongoing attempts to resolve the Syrian crisis do not consider the interests of peoples of Syria and also those of women. She emphasized that Syria would never go back to its previous centralized status and the only solution to resolve all is problems is federalism.

Iraq (Bashur or South of Kurdistan)

The Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce and Industry is set to establish trade relations with the Kurdish-administered areas of northern Syria (also known as Rojava), following the announcement of a federal system.

In support of Rojava’s Federalism, the Coordinating Council of Three Factions of Komala issued a statement calling it “a step to reunify and reconsolidate some peoples who have a long history of living a peaceful life together”. The statement also called upon “all other liberating and socialist parties and organizations to support this democratic move.”

A Kurdish Kolbar lost his life on March 26, 2016, while he was trying to cross the Choman river of Baneh. Kolbaris a term referred to those destitute people in Kurdistan who carry heavy items such as TVs, heaters, cigarettes, tires, clothing, textiles, drinks, etc. on their back from Bashur to Rojhelat and vice versa for a low wage. Border police, landmines, and rivers are the main causes of their death.

Iranian security forces arrested two Kurdish civilians in Mariwan due to their participation in Newroz (Kurdish New Year) celebrations. Families of these two civilians who are residing in Daseran Neighborhood of Mariwan, ask the Kurdistan Human Rights Association to not publish their names due to the threats they had received from the Iranian security forces.